Apex court orders panel to look into R&R issue of Manipur victims

New Delhi: Ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah holding a meeting with a Kuki-Zo tribal group from Manipur here on Tuesday over issues like setting up a separate political administration and a mass burial in Churachandpur to resolve the ongoing ethnic unrest in the northeastern state, the Supreme Court on Monday also ordered the setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to oversee the relief and rehabilitation of victims and compensation for them, besides asking former Maharashtra  police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the probe in criminal cases.

A five-member delegation of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum is due to hold talks with Shah and place their demands, ITLF secretary Muan Tombing said before leaving for New Delhi from Aizawl on Monday.

“We have five main demands. Our political demand of total separation from Manipur should be sped up. As the burial of the bodies of the Kuki-Zo community members is delayed, the bodies are now lying in Imphal and all the bodies should be brought to Churachandpur,” he said.

About other demands, Tombing said that the burial site at S Boljang in  Churachandpur should be legalised, all the “Meitei state forces” should not be deployed in hill districts for the safety of the Kuki-Zo community members and tribal jail inmates in Imphal should be transferred to other states for their safety.
The Supreme Court, while observing that its effort was to restore the people’s faith in the rule of law in the strife-torn state, also decided to monitor the overall situation there and the three-member panel will submit reports to it directly.

A bench chaired by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir high court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and include Justices Shalini P. Joshi (Retd), a former judge of the Bombay high court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi high court.

Cognizant of reports about the border state falling deeper into chaos, with more and more people getting killed and arson and mayhem prevailing, the bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which had termed as “deeply disturbing” the video of women being paraded naked, said it will appoint a committee of three former high court judges to oversee the relief and rehabilitation of those affected.

“We will appoint a committee of three former high court judges,” the bench said, adding the panel will be looking at issues including relief, remedial measures, rehabilitation, compensation and also restoration of homes and places of worship. The bench said the committee of judges will visit the relief camps and assess the conditions there.

On the investigation of cases, the top court said 11 FIRs will be transferred to the CBI. “We are not going to supplant the CBI because you (the state government) have the investigating agency which will be looking after the investigation,” the bench said.

The top court also said that to ensure there is a sense of faith, it will direct that at least five officers, not below the rank of deputy superintendents of police, be brought into the CBI on deputation from various states to oversee the probe.
It  also said these officers will be functioning within the administrative set-up of the CBI and may be supervised by an officer of the rank of joint director in the Central agency.

“We are going to add one more layer of scrutiny for us. We have already identified the officer,” the bench said, adding  that former Maharashtra DGP Dattatray Padsalgikar will monitor the overall investigation and keep apprising it of the developments.

It said as per the report placed before it by attorney-general R. Venkataramani and solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, about 42 state SITs will be looking at the cases which will not be transferred to the CBI and in each of these SITs, at least one inspector from another state will be brought on deputation to the Manipur police.

The SC also ordered that these 42 SITs should be supervised by six DIG-rank officers who will come in from outside the state of Manipur.

During the hearing, Manipur chief secretary Vineet Joshi and state DGP Rajiv Singh appeared before the bench. The top law officers submitted a report, which the apex court had sought on August 1, on issues including segregation of cases.

“The government is handling the situation at a very mature level,” the attorney-general told the bench. They also  said the state government proposed to set up SITs headed by a superintendent of police at the district level, to probe all the sensitive cases. The CBI has been asked to investigate 11 cases, the A-G added.